Rep. Liz Cheney ‘Message to Trump’ Tweet

On September 26 2022, an Imgur account shared a screenshot of a tweet attributed to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming):

Alongside the post, the Imgur submitter included a link to a September 26 2022 set of tweets. Elements like links to tweets are often overlooked or not immediately visible, and a cursory glance might suggest that the screenshot matched the actual, live tweet, giving the impression of due diligence:

Fact Check

Claim: Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) tweeted about her “message to Trump” (regarding Russia) in September 2022.

Description: The claim is that Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) tweeted an offensive message to Trump regarding Russia in September 2022. The primary evidence for this claim is a tweet screenshot circulating on social media.

Rating: Not True

Rating Explanation: The claim is fraudulent, based on a screenshot that’s labeled as a parody, and comes from erroneous attribution of its contents to Cheney. Authentic sources detailing Cheney’s recent actions and statements offer no support for this claim.

In the top portion, Twitter user John Oberlin (@OMGno2trump) tweeted “OMG. Liz Cheney is seriously trash talking Trump.” However, the set was not a retweet — rather, Oberlin shared the commentary alongside a screenshot of a tweet attributed to Cheney.

Initial text on the second tweet read:

@RepLizCheney

Trump says Russia could defeat the United States.

My message to Trump is this: WHOSE A CUTE RUSSIAN BITCH?

Much smaller elements at the bottom of the tweet followed, which revealed that it was a hoax. They read:

6:82 PM • Sep 25, 2022 • Parody by Back Rub

A “Parody by Back Rub” element appeared in the lower right corner, in place of “Twitter for Android” or “Twitter for iPhone.” In addition to that labeling, the “tweet” was time stamped at “6:82 PM.”

Satirical tweets with that watermark (and others like it) have been mistaken for real tweets multiple times in the past. On the Twitter thread for the purported Liz Cheney tweet, some readers mistook it for a potentially real tweet, while others pointed out the poor grammar:

On September 26 2022 (the day the tweet appeared), Rep. Cheney was the subject of a CNN editorial about her opinion of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Cheney had recently gone on the record to discuss her political stance as well as her view of the January 6th Committee’s findings, and she reiterated her disdain for the Capitol insurrection:

Liz Cheney did not hold back when slamming both former President Donald Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in an interview this weekend [in late September 2022] at the Texas Tribune Festival. Cheney, who vowed to campaign against election-denying candidates in the November [2022] election, declared that if Trump becomes the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, then “I won’t be a Republican.”

[…]

If that same 30% of Republicans nationwide heed Cheney’s advice and reject Trumpism at the polls in November [2022], it will be all but impossible for Republicans to win the House of Representatives. And if a similar percentage spurns the former President, his chances of getting the 2024 Republican White House nomination in a crowded field will be greatly diminished – and that would be a great thing for those who support keeping America a democratic republic.

During her interview on Saturday [September 24 2022], Cheney once again raised the alarm about Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, sharing that “one of the things that has surprised me the most about my work on this (January 6 House) committee is how sophisticated the plan was that Donald Trump was involved in and oversaw every step of the way.”

On September 27 2022, Cheney was mentioned in the news again, as the approach of Hurricane Ian led to the postponement of a January 6th Committee hearing:

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol announced Tuesday [September 27 2022] that it had postponed a hearing scheduled for Wednesday [September 28 2022] as a hurricane hurtled toward the Florida coast.

The committee had planned to hold what was likely to be its final investigative hearing Wednesday afternoon [September 28 2022], but members decided at the last minute to delay it as it became clear that Hurricane Ian was churning on a collision course toward Florida, where it was expected to strengthen into a catastrophic Category 4 storm.

“We’re praying for the safety of all those in the storm’s path,” committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and vice chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in a statement Tuesday afternoon [September 27 2022]. “The Select Committee’s investigation goes forward and we will soon announce a date for the postponed proceedings.”

On September 26 2022, a viral tweet attributed Rep. Liz Cheney (“My message to Trump …”) spread virally, later appearing in an Imgur post. The Twitter screenshot was fabricated and marked as such, but not everybody was aware that its intent was satirical in nature. At the time that the tweet circulated, Cheney was in the news for (authentic) statements she made about Trump and the Republican Party, as well as in relation to the postponement of a January 6th Committee hearing due to Hurricane Ian.